Marriage is running differently

Since we’ve both taken up running, my wife and I have been having some odd conversations – odd for us, anyway. Take this one for example:

Mrs. Jody: Hey, honey, love of my life, man of my dreams! Thanks for not leaving any clothes on the ground, for always leaving the toilet seat down, for giving up watching all sports on TV and for reading the Twilight series out loud with me!

Mr. Jody: Anything for you, sweetie! Can I give you a foot massage while I serenade you with a French love song?

OK, the conversations aren’t THAT odd, but they are certainly different.

We compare runs, complain about injuries, talk about pacing and even – and this is the really strange part – chat about future races and run distances we want to try out. It’s both fun and hard to believe these words are coming out of our mouths sometimes.

It’s hard for us to run together at this point because we have three young children, so we usually have to go solo while the other stays home on damage-control duty. But I really look forward to going on runs with my wife. I’m excited to think of how it can improve our relationship and give us common goals to work on.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, Heather and I plan on running in the inaugural SoJo Half Marathon if all goes well (with injuries and training). The new South Jordan event, which begins near the Copper Pit and ends on the Jordan River Trailway, also has a full marathon, a 5K, a spaghetti dinner and lots of downhill parts (sweet!).

On Saturday, Oct. 30, we’re thinking that the Provo Halloween Half Marathon looks like a blast (funny what we think of as fun nowadays!). Participants are encouraged to dress up in costumes, and pictures make it look like a massive trick-or-treating party from the Alpine Loop to Provo.

We also want to do a Turkey Trot or Cold Turkey Run on Thanksgiving and a New Year’s Eve race. My wife thought the Las Vegas Rock N Roll half marathon looked interesting, but I have a triathlon in Sin City in late October (Pumpkinman) so two trips to Elvis’ stomping grounds probably won’t happen so soon together.

So, two questions for y’all today:

1. Have you tried running with your significant other and what’s that been like?

2. What races are on your agenda the rest of the year? Any fun ones we should be looking at trying out?